Rising sea levels and beach erosion are issues in nearly every coastal community. But decades of rough seas against the craggy shoreline in Brant Rock have reduced much of the beach to a narrow strip of sand between the rocks and the ocean.

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The stretch of beach at the northern end of Brant Rock along Ocean Street all but disappears at high tide, and locals say it’s getting worse, the Patriot Ledger reported.

“I’ve been coming here for 12 years, and the beach has gotten much smaller,” Christine Harris of Marshfield said as she sat on the sea wall this past weekend to read. “Even at low tide, there’s just a little bit of sand. Anyone would tell you that there’s an obvious difference.”

The town’s beach administrator, Cindy Castro, said severe storms have continued to eat away at the eastern coastline, and even the most protected beaches have taken a hit.

Castro collects historical photographs of Marshfield beaches, and they show how the beaches have changed over time.

“In my photos from the 1870s, there was nice, healthy beach there,” Castro said of Brant Rock and the adjacent Ocean Bluff area.

She said Green Harbor to the south lost 15 to 24 feet of beach during the winter, and the town is working on restoration, but little can be done to replenish the beach sand at the northern end, where Harris and other Marshfield residents gather to soak up the sun.

In the absence of a beach, they set up chairs along the top of the sea wall.

The wall is one reason the beach has gotten smaller over time, Marshfield Conservation Agent Jay Wennemer said.

He said beaches typically have a sand dune at the top, and waves at high tide pull material from the dune and spread it across the beach, helping to maintain it.

“When you put a sea wall up, it interrupts the retreat because the sand that the dune used to supply is protected, and the material doesn’t go onto the beach,” he said.

Wennemer said the coastline is getting smaller.

“All the beaches I recall (as a kid) had more sand and were broader than they are today,” he said. “But I think the rate of beach erosion has increased in last decade or two. We have more frequent and bigger coastal storms, in part due to climate change.”

Bringing in dredged sand can help, but Wennemer said Brant Rock and Ocean Bluff are places where the ocean has a lot of force.

"You’re talking about bringing in a huge amount of material before you’d see a change,” he said. “Fine sand wouldn’t last there very long.”

It is a different story at the southern end of Brant Rock Beach, where a jetty traps sand and creates a sandier area for beach-goers.

Bette Allen, another Marshfield resident, said the sea wall along Ocean Street is convenient for her, but she prefers the town’s northern beaches, like Fieldston, which are better protected. Allen said Brant Rock Beach has changed tremendously during the nine years she has lived nearby.

“It’s shrinking from the winters,” she said. “...There’s no beach at high tide.”